


A New Point of View

by ozsaur



Category: Greek Mythology, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Genre: Crossover, Established Relationship, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:15:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozsaur/pseuds/ozsaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persephone makes a new friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Point of View

**Author's Note:**

  * For [echoinautumn (maybetwice)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maybetwice/gifts).



> Thank you dustandroses for the hand holding and encouragement.
> 
> Echoinautumn, this isn't what you asked for, but I hope you like it anyway.

It was a sad statement about her life that she now had a fondness for the cold. Sad because she had started out as a goddess of spring, of plants, and vegetation, and flowers.

This cold, desolate place suited her, at least for the time being. She'd have to leave soon enough, when her mother realized that she'd been released from the Underworld, and came for her.

She hadn't really wanted to leave the Underworld, but it always felt like a betrayal to stay longer than the required three months a year. Three months never seemed like enough time to explore areas that she hadn't seen before, or revisit her favorite places like the gardens made of every kind of precious gemstone that Hades had made for her to tempt her to stay those many, many years ago.

Back then, she had yearned for the sun, for open fields, and her friends the Nymphs. Persephone wrinkled her nose thinking of all the time she'd spent weeping, and calling for her mother when, before Hades, she'd spent all her time scheming ways to escape her mother's control. Marriage had been one means of escape, but every man presented to Demeter had been summarily rejected. Only Hades had had the courage to steal Persephone out from under her mother's nose.

Hades had been strangely absent this year, except for his usual greeting that he always gave when she first arrived. He'd been brief, somewhat distracted, then had left her to her own devices which had been the pattern for quite some time.

She dismissed him from her thoughts, and looked around, admiring the austere landscape. The sky was slate gray, and reminded her of the dim reaches of the Underworld. The muffling silence of the snow also gave her a pang of homesickness. It was a desolate place, yet the winter sun made the snow sparkle prettily.

She rounded a snow covered evergreen, and kicked something hidden in a mound of snow. It went flying, then landed in a colorful heap.

"Hey, watch it!"

It was... a doll. A small, cloth doll with orange yarn hair tied in braids, tiny freckles dotted across its cheeks, a pencil line mouth, and a blue gingham dress. It was a girl doll, standing with hands on hips, glaring at her.

"Where did you come from?" Persephone asked. 

"A factory in Wisconsin."

"Oh... Then how did you end up here?"

The doll's pencil line mouth frowned in quite an adorable way. "I belong here. This is the Island of Misfit Toys. How did you get here? You're not a toy."

"I never know where I'm going to end up when I leave the Underworld. Am I forbidden to be here? It would be strange to end up in a place where I don't belong."

"Beats me. Rudolph ended up here a few years ago, but at least he was a Misfit because of his nose."

"Who?"

"Never mind. I'm Trudy, by the way. You?"

"Persephone."

"Okay, Steph." Trudy waved her cloth arm toward a high mountain peak with a castle on top. "I better take you to King Moonracer and let him sort you out."

* * *

The throne room was quite a let down. There were no guards at the doors, nor inside. There didn't seem to be anyone anywhere, except for a group of toys that did a peculiar song and dance routine that was probably a welcoming ceremony of some sort. Persephone had clapped politely, and nodded in her most dignified way before following Trudy to the castle.

It was a good thing she was impervious to the cold because the throne room was chilly, and drafty, which made sense because of the snowy landscape, but there was no excuse for how the place lacked grandeur, and couldn't even merit a grudging pronouncement of charming. There were toys everywhere! Shouldn't the throne room be at least bright and cheerful?

The king himself was much closer to what she expected of royalty, though a great, winged lion with a crown perched on his head was peculiar. She was long accustomed to gods and goddesses showing up in many different aspects, so she made a small, but correct, obeisance to show respect.

"I apologize if I'm trespassing," Persephone began.

"No need to apologize." His voice was deep, and had a pleasant resonance. "I've long grown accustomed to visitors, though they usually only appear during the holidays. I am King Moonracer. Who are you, and why are you here?"

"Persephone. I'm the Queen of the Underworld, and I come back to the world every spring." Persephone looked around. "It doesn't appear to be spring here."

"No, the Island is in perpetual winter. In the outside world it would be spring."

"Oh, well then, I'm not too far off the mark. It's the right time of year, and the snow is nice, and my mother hasn't found me yet. May I stay for a while?"

"I'm sorry, but the Island is only suitable for toys."

"I'm a goddess, I can survive here just fine."

"It's not a matter of your survival. There are a number of reasons I keep the toys isolated."

"Because there's something wrong with them?"

She heard a soft hrmph! and looked down to see Trudy walking away. She watched Trudy stomp all the way to the doors of the throne room, though it wasn't much of a stomp. It was hard to make noise with feet made of cloth. The doors shut behind Trudy with a bang.

King Moonracer looked so disappointed that Persephone blushed with embarrassment. 

"There is nothing wrong with Trudy," he said.

"But-- I thought she was a misfit."

"A misfit, yes. There is nothing wrong with being a misfit. It only means that it takes longer to find a place where you fit in."

"She doesn't look like a misfit. Trudy looks like a perfectly normal doll to me." It had been a long time since Persephone had felt so stupid. The kindness in King Moonracer's eyes didn't help any.

"Trudy wants to belong to a boy."

"A lot of boys want dolls."

"Most boys want action figures. The few who want real dolls, have chosen others."

"Maybe I could help?"

King Moonracer seemed to smile, though is muzzle couldn't quite make such an expression. It was more like an aura, a feeling of compassion and patience. He was very old, and she wondered what he might have been in a past era.

"Thank you, but Santa and Rudolph manage the Misfits just fine."

She had no excuse to stay, but she was a goddess, and a queen, and as such she was welcome wherever she chose to go.

"I will try not to impose on your hospitality for too long, King Moonracer."

She pretended not to hear his sigh of resignation.

Persephone left the castle thinking that she would find Trudy, and apologize, maybe even make things up to her. She found her in a group with a few other toys, and asked her what would make her happier on the Island.

It turned out Trudy wanted a house, and not the pink and purple cottage Persephone thought she might like. Trudy opted for a log cabin with a stone fireplace that held a real fire. Persephone was careful to make sure the fire wouldn't burn anything but the tiny logs stacked inside.

The other toys had joined in, and Persephone ended up creating a village with tracks that could accommodate any train, a pond for any kind of boat, fish, or aquatic creature, and a helicopter pad. For the soldiers, she'd built a barracks, and for the stuffed animals a barn. Of course, there were Christmas lights on every building, and lampposts along every little street.

When she was done, Persephone walked a short distance away so she could admire her work. It was fully dark, so the little toy town glowed brightly. She watched the toys move from place to place, chatting excitedly. 

"Persephone."

She gasped, and spun around. "Hades! What are you doing here." She gathered her wits, and raised her chin. "Did you come to take me back?"

"No, quite the opposite." He reached into the inner breast pocket of his suit, and pulled out a sheaf of papers. "I want a divorce."

"What?" She must have misheard him.

"I've been thinking about it for a long time, Persephone. We should have been free of each other a long time ago."

"Each other?" She glared. "Don't you mean you should have set me free?"

"Divorce hasn't exactly been an option for us," he said, stepping closer. The light from the town fell on his face revealing a deep weariness. "Not unless you consider being turned into a bird or a tree a divorce which I doubt would work with you anyway. I've been singularly unsuccessful in changing your mind, let alone anything else."

"You expected me to change for you?" She laughed, sharp and angry. It felt good. It had been a long time since she'd felt anything but a low-level discontent.

"No, but I had _hoped_ , foolishly, that you would one day see me for who I am."

"I know exactly what you are: a kidnapper. You kidnapped me, and held me against my-- "

"Enough!" 

She startled badly. She'd never heard him shout before, not at her, not at anyone. That was one of the few things she'd learned to admire about him in the melodrama of Olympus, where emotions ran higher and hotter than a volcano. Hades had never been anything other than unflappable, even when provoked beyond what most could endure.

"Enough," he said more calmly. "You've thrown that one act of impetuous stupidity into my face a million times. I'm done with it." He dropped the papers at her feet.

She felt shaken to the core. "It's impossible," she whispered. The papers fluttered in the light breeze.

"It's a whole new age. We've passed through at least a dozen of them since we first manifested. Things are different now. Zeus and Hera have retired to the south of France; Apollo is some kind of beach bum in Hawaii, I think he owns a surf shop. Charon owns an international shipping company, and Cerberus plays monsters in movies, mostly for the SyFy channel.

"Didn't you wonder why you're not with your mother? She's off somewhere sinking whaling ships for P.E.T.A or saving trees. I think she was saving owls the last time I talked to her."

"You talked to my mother?" That was probably the most appalling revelation so far. 

"Not often. We talk when we see each other." 

No, Demeter would never speak to Hades, except to possibly curse at him. She hated Hades... didn't she?

Hades began to fade away.

"Wait!" It was suddenly very important that he not leave.

He solidified, one brow quirked in inquiry.

She groped for something to say. "If I sign these, I want to remain Queen of the Underworld."

"Of course you do," Hades muttered.

"What's that?"

"Never mind. Just have your lawyer call my lawyer when you're ready to sign."

"Wait, you don't even want me to call you in person?" Persephone felt more than a little hurt.

"Call me, call my lawyer, I don't care. Please just sign the papers." He started to fade again.

"Wait!" She didn't know why she was so reluctant to see him go.

He solidified. "What is it now?"

"Is there someone else?" she blurted out. She didn't know where that idea had come from. She had no reason to think that there was-- Oh, sweet Olympus, was he in love with someone else?

"What difference does it make?" His irritation was plain, but he shrugged anyway, and answered, "No, there's no one else. There's never been anyone else. Even when I was trying to make you jealous, you always put a stop to it before I had to follow through with anything."

"But if you're not in love with someone else, then why are you doing this? I don't understand."

He studied her for a long time, until she had to look away. When he replied, his voice was gentle. "You've spent our entire marriage pushing me away. You finally succeeded. Good-bye, Persephone."

This time he simply vanished.

* * *

Persephone could see inside the open front of Trudy's house where she was sitting in a rocking chair next to the fireplace. She didn't want to talk to anyone, but she didn't know what else to do either. She sat down next to the doll house with the papers in her lap.

"What's up, Steph?"

"Do you think you could be happy here if you never find a boy of your own?" It was probably cruel to ask such a question, but she couldn't help herself.

"Santa will find a boy for me," Trudy said, without a hint of doubt.

"But what if he doesn't?"

Trudy rocked in her chair, thinking. "This is a nice house, Steph. I could live here a long time, and be okay. But this isn't my home. Santa will find a boy to love me, and then I'll have a real home."

"Are you saying the boy will be your home?"

"For me, yes. I guess other people have a place, but for me, and most toys, home is a person."

The Underworld was Persephone's home, and on some level, she'd always known that. Her eagerness to go, and her reluctance to leave was the first clue. As much as she loved the sunlit world that she was born to, the realm of shadows called to the deepest part of her.

But if she were truthful, it wasn't just the Underworld that spoke to her. Hades had always been a part of it, showing her the secret places that only he had ever seen before, revealing wonders. 

Revealing himself.

She'd always kept her eyes on the world around her, never on him. Never on herself.

The revelation came crashing in on her. It was him, all of it. Hades was the Underworld. She had embraced the glory and the beauty of the place, while rejecting the living part, the god. They were one and the same, yet she had kept them divided in her mind. 

Being a goddess herself, she should have understood right from the beginning. She was a goddess of spring, of burgeoning life, but she was also Persephone the woman. As a goddess of spring, she had to make way for summer. She had to rest after bringing forth so much new life.

Perhaps that was why she had emerged in a place where only evergreens could grow. She wasn't ready.

These last few years she had missed Hades, the god, the man. She could admit it now, that she'd been lonely for him, that her home didn't feel right without him by her side.

"Trudy, I'm beginning to think that a home can be both a person and a place."

"Sure. Why not?" Trudy said.

"I hope you find your boy some day soon, Trudy. I'm happy you like the house."

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Home."

* * *

She wasn't surprised to find him in the throne room. It was grand, and beautiful, with columns of raw crystal towering above her. He watched as she approached, but said nothing as she mounted the stairs, then sat down in the throne next to his.

She put her hand on his arms. It momentarily stiffened, then relaxed under her touch. 

"My only excuse is that I'm a goddess of spring, of new life, and possibility. It took more time than usual for me to grow up."

His breathing was soft and even. She realized she that she could spend the rest of her life listening to it.

"You're ready?" he asked.

"I'm ready," she said. 

The End


End file.
